Walker was outstanding last week, but he's 19, it's unrealistic to expect him to be consistent at this level at the moment. He's an easy target for some people as they still feel aggrieved over how he handled his contract negotiations, although it was the club who went public with what happened - not him.

He won't get a game at the Roosters or any other NRL team at the moment, and time will tell if he ever will. He's not as good as Hardaker or Tomkins when they went over, and he would get absolutely smashed to pieces given his current condition.

https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/sport/r ... -1-9695689 James Donaldson not holding back and he’s spot on

https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/sport/r ... -1-9695689 James Donaldson not holding back and he’s spot on

I'm sure there's an element of truth in this. That said, if he's getting picked every week then folk will give increasingly candid opinions on how he's performed, same as with any other player. Were he being broken in more gradually then I reckon he'd be cut a bit more slack.

Easy to forget what players like Danny, Rob, Sir Kev, Watkins etc was like at 19. Certainly inconsistent, inexperienced and learning. Why do people expect Walker to be any different?

JP was just breaking into the Bulls team at the same age.

Walker is a kid and a highly talented one. Pick on some of the senior players who are letting the club down at the moment.

To be fair he's just a hardworking forward sitting on the bench and the game's lost before he even gets on. Interesting because it shows that within the squad there's a view that some players simply aren't having a proper dig.

I’ve no issues with Donaldson, he’s a solid workman like squad player who is a good defender, and will not be taking up a lot of cap space.

Solid workman like players aren't really good enough for Leeds tho are they? Especially as a forward who is about 5 ft 9 ffs. And especially off the bench when he offers no impact whatsoever.

He does defend well tho and in that regard hes a better option to start than JJB who unfortunately is the only member of the golden generation who has gone on too long when he had nothing more to prove and it's sad to watch him play now. He cant get to market when hes made a tackle, cant get back 10m and is getting singled out by the opposition in the ruck area. I love JJB for the career hes had at Leeds hes been sensational for us but hes gone on too long. I understand he offers dressing room presence and experience but those only count of he can do it on the field and he cant anymore I'm afraid.

They can't not be aware of it. The whole comp knows that if you run hard at Leeds, they'll buckle. The reluctance to do the dirty stuff has guaranteed that every game from now on will be very physical regardless of who we play. Makes for a tough season when every side is intent upon battering the s**t out of you. Totally self-inflicted; had we shown intent in the tackle early doors then the opposition might have considered different approaches. Or even seen other sides as the ones they should target for a win.

Watched yesterday’s Catalan- Saints match ,the Catalan goal line defence to keep out saints in the last ten minutes was exceptional. All of it based on courage and commitment, something in which we sadly lacked at hull kr.

Not only at KR but pretty much all season. It's the attitude and commitment that's under scrutiny not ability. Is this the players not playing for Furner or are there other issues that aren't apparent on the terraces

Agreed.

Though I don’t think it’s them not playing for Furner. I think it’s an attitude or a focus issue.
When we talk about attitude and not having the right attitude in RL people often then jump to “the players aren’t bothered” or “don’t care”. I don’t think that’s true. I think it’s just we have a group of players who aren’t conditioned to be able to produce that kind of mental fortitude that good defence requires. I think we see it in the opposite way with our lack of patience or inability to apply pressure in attack.

Something McDermott said after a game in 2016 stuck with me. He said something along the lines of “I have to convince them they’re not as tired as they think they are”.
I think that was true then and is true of the team now. We’re missing that little extra 1% or even 0.5% of an effort to either get back inside and in position that little bit quicker, or wrap the ball up a bit tighter, or run it in that little bit faster that in itself is not massive but cumulatively adds up to a lot over 80 mins.

I think the problems are being over-complicated here.

The current squad just isn’t good enough. It wasn’t last year. We’ve gained some quality from last year, but arguably lost more.

It’s easy to talk about attitude etc. but we don’t have enough quality. We have several talented players who aren’t physically up to playing against SL players every week. We have too many errors in us. We don’t play with enough intelligence.

Our most consistent forward has been out injured and our captain has been bang out of form on his recovery.

I’m not going to defend Lolohea too much but who of the rest of the squad has a rubbish attitude or isn’t trying?

Is Walker not trying or has a poor attitude when he’s coming up with repeated mistakes or not saving goal line tries?

No, he’s just young and under-developed. It might take him another couple of years to muscle up at this level, and even then I’m not sure he’s a Paul Wellens.

We are going to lose more games than we win until we get more quality in the team, we had all just better reconcile to that fact.

It’s a salary cap sport. Every club has to have low value players, to afford the likes of Konrad Hurrell and Trent Merrin. The two between them are taking up £300k or 15% of the salary cap alone.

Donaldson isn’t a world class player but he comes on and makes his tackles, which is exactly what his job and role in the team is. With no injuries he’d be unlikely to get into a fully fit side.

You're right there is always a mixture of quality in a side (well, in this country anyway). I guess an indicator of how well your club is travelling is in how good these "reserve" kind of players are.

Leeds are entering into a different phase over the next few years where you'd hope some of this junior talent will be breaking through into first team, but right now there probably is a role for some players like Donaldson - IF they bring an first class attitude.

I think overall we just need to put this game to bed and move on; HKR played pretty well even if we flattered them, and they got some crucial early moments go their way which affected momentum. When we get on the back foot we look very fragile, and we're not good at staying on the front foot, so... we're just going to have to be patient this year, again.